Included in that figure of more than 102 million who did not vote in the last presidential election are at least 20 million who are resident aliens.

o Factual Error concerning resident aliens; Omission of Fact: Resident aliens are not allowed to vote in federal elections. Their voting in federal elections is a criminal offense that can result in one year in prison and deportation.

An unknown but certainly significant number of people cannot vote today because of (1) the purposeful administration of election laws to keep them from doing so, and/or (2) various “informal” local pressures applied to that same end.

o Bias; vague and unclear meaning, If “unknown” how can “significant number” be claimed? What is the “purposeful administration” of election laws that keep people from voting? What are “informal local pressure” that keep people from voting?

Ronald Reagan biography

o No mention of Reagan’s role in the Berlin Wall being torn down. Failed to mention the work of Reagan, Thatcher and the Pope in promoting the fall of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union did not have the resources to implement a “Star Wars” system that Regan supported. Others have already chronicled the role Reagan, Thatcher, and John Paul II played in the last great revolution of the 20th century. That it was largely a peaceful revolution in the context of decades of nuclear menace makes it all the more breathtaking.

Pearson United States History 1877 to Present

Many German and Irish Catholics had immigrated in the 1840s and 1850s, and more arrived after the Civil War. Some Americans had prejudices against Catholics, but the Irish spoke English and the German Catholics benefited from the good reputation of their Protestant countrymen. Although many lacked skills and money, the children of these immigrants were often able to blend into American society. Beginning in the 1870s, Irish and Germans were joined by “new” immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. They arrived in increasing numbers until the outbreak of World War I. In contrast to “old” immigrants who had come before the Irish and Germans, “new” immigrants were often unskilled, poor, Catholic or Jewish, and likely to settle in cities rather than on farms. Many came alone, planning to save some money in the United States and return home to live. They came from Italy, Greece, Poland, Hungary, and Russia in large numbers. After 1900, immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe made up more than 70 percent of all immigrants, up from about 1 percent in the mid-1800s.

o The statements have partially accurate information when dealing with Protestant immigration. However, the material concerning both Italian Catholic and European Jewish immigrants is incorrect, stereotypic and highly negative in its presentation. Italian and Jewish immigrants a century ago did not come from the lowest segments of their societies. It is true that the Italian immigration was primarily a peasant migration of farm or common laborers from the agricultural regions of the south. However, the Italians most likely to have left for America were in the middle or lower-middle levels of the peasantry and not from the landless. As for eastern European Jews, an exceptionally high proportion — fully two thirds of the previously-employed Jewish immigrants arriving in the US between 1899 and 1910 — had worked in skilled trades before they emigrated. These immigrants were more skilled than the textbook presents. However professionals were scarce: Of those arriving in America between 1899 and 1910, less than one percent of the Italians and only 1.3 percent of the previously

>>Analyze Maps: Based on the map, what can you predict about where the major battles of World War I would be fought?

o The students have not yet been given any of the facts concerning any of the reasons for WWI or the countries involved. Students are not expected to “predict” anything. They need to be given the facts upon which they are to base their analysis.

Analyze Maps: What city is located on the border between Israeli and Palestinian territory?

o There is absolutely no reason to ask students who know nothing about Jerusalem to identify the city as “located on the border between Israeli and Palestinian territory.”

McGraw Hill US History to 1877

Three lessons in Chapter 3 are spent discussing Islam.

o Irrelevant to topic of North American development and history

Chapter 7 The American Revolution

o Does not mention battles of Lexington or Concord – does not mention Paul Revere (except at a side reference to a former slave’s ride)

The text does not discuss the basis for the President being the Commander in Chief of the military – civilian control of military

o Does not mention that members of the courts (judiciary) are nominated by the President and must be approved by the Senate – another check and balance.

Chapter 18

o Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are the only Southern Generals given any mention.

McGraw Hill American Government

In 2012 President Obama invoked executive privilege when his attorney general refused to turn over documents to Congress related to a gun-trafficking sting operation known as “Fast and Furious.” His predecessor, President George W. Bush, used executive privilege six times, including to avoid giving Congress information on the use of FBI mob informants.

o Omits the fact that President Clinton used executive privilege 14 times and that the Obama Administration has been repeatedly criticized for expansive claims of presidential privilege, including a federal court ordering production of evidence.

In 2008, however, Barack Obama elected not to receive public financing while Republican nominee John McCain chose to receive it. As a result, Obama was able to outspend McCain by a factor of two to one.

o This fails to note that Obama had promised to accept public funding of his campaign and then reneged on his promise.

Houghton Mifflin United States History: Early Colonial Period through Reconstruction

Chapter 1, Section 3: The Trading Kingdoms of West Africa

o The emphasis on Islam in the opening chapter of this book is agenda-based. There is no proportion in the presentation of the material about the ancient African kingdoms themselves and the amount of the material on Islam. The inclusions in the Teacher’s Edition and the Make Inferences, Summarize, Explain exercises are designed to focus student attention on Islam.

General observation on the whole book:

o Grade 8 is a formative age group and the subject matter of these chapters is important. These chapters address the early years of the Federal government following implementation of the Constitution. The importance of the Bill of Rights is not discussed, even though events that are counter to those rights are addressed. As the text chronicles, almost immediately there was a move to consolidate power and control at the federal level, bringing to mind the warnings of Founding Fathers such as Jefferson. The lesson neglects to address the importance of the enumerated powers of Congress and the intent of the Tenth Amendment. This designed balance of the Constitution is the basis for the governmental power struggle that immediately developed, and has continued throughout our history. The establishment of a “privately owned” national bank is addressed without laying the groundwork for the impact this action has had in modern times. The role of the Federal Court system is this expansion of power is presented with no analysis of propriety.

Discovery Education US History: Civil War to the Present

The Second Amendment asserts the right to own firearms. This right has long been at the center of debate in the United States.

o William Howard Taft, 10th Chief Justice of the U.S. 1921-1930:”It is revealing that in the thousands of pages of proceedings that were published in the course of the debates that took place in the state and federal legislatures before the drafting of the bill of rights and throughout the ratification period, little mention is made of the individual right to keep and bear arms. This indicates, I think it is fair to say, that whatever their disagreements about the inclusion of a bill of rights in the Constitution, the Federalists and Anti-federalists were unanimous in their support of an individual right to keep and bear arms.”

Once the telegraph was invented, companies rushed to put up telegraph lines all across the country and across the seas. This drawing shows the laying of a telegraph cable off the Arabian Coast in 1859.

o The selection of a photo of the Arabian coast seems misplaced in an American history textbook.

The First Cowboys: When the Moors, the people of the empire of North Africa, conquered Spain in the eighth century, the Spaniards quickly learned how to handle horses and use them as an effective tool in wartime.

o The history of the horse in Spain pre-dates the invasion of the Moors.

In a Chapter entitled “Women in the West,” the “More to Explore” link called “Education for Afghan Women” contains 10 videos concerning women in Afghanistan.

o The selection of an example of education for Afghan women seems misplaced in an American history textbook.

In a chapter entitled Closing the Doors on Immigration,” the “More to Explore” link called “Immigrant Women” contains videos regarding Israel and the Middle East.

o These videos are out of place in this US History textbook and are more appropriate in a World History textbook.

In a Chapter section entitled “Taking the Philippines” there is a definition and example of the word “annex”: “The word annex means “to obtain or take for oneself.” In historical terms, it means “to incorporate one state or territory into another.” Sometimes, annexation is peaceful. At other times, it is the result of armed conflict. For example, when the Muslim caliph Umar I succeeded Caliph Abu Bakr in 634, he inherited Bakr’s jihad, or holy war, against the Byzantine Empire. Bakr led his armies to conquer much territory in the Middle East. This included the city of Jerusalem, as well as Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. Bakr also annexed Mesopotamia.”

o The selection of an example in history of annexing in Islamic history seems misplaced in an American history textbook.

Other Hispanic –rights organizations such as La Unida Raza, worked to improve educational, professional and social opportunities for Latin Americans.

o Omits the stated goals of La Raza: “MEChA and the La Raza movement teach that Colorado, California, Arizona, Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon and parts of Washington State make up an area known as “Aztlan” — a fictional ancestral homeland of the Aztecs before Europeans arrived in North America. As such, it belongs to the followers of MEChA. These are all areas America should surrender to “La Raza” once enough immigrants, legal or illegal, enter to claim a majority, as in Los Angeles. The current borders of the United States will simply be extinguished. This plan is what is referred to as the “Reconquista” or reconquest, of the Western U.S.”

Carson’s book showed the unintended side effects of DDT, including its effect on birds and animals and its contamination of the human food supply.

o This only presents what they consider the positive side of banning DDT without considering the negative effects of such a world-wide unnecessary action. The most evident negative effect of banning an effective pesticide was the resultant deaths of thousands, perhaps millions of African people over the years from mosquito borne malaria, previously almost completely held in control by an insecticide with no reported ill effects upon humans.

“But abortion foes are now much more aggressive. They expand the nationwide campaign blocking the entrances to health centers which perform abortions. And in some cases, they turn to violence, bombing abortion clinics.”

o The pro abortion demonstrators are portrayed as peaceful, while the pro-life demonstrators are shown only as aggressive and violent.

In the Chapter entitled “New World Order” subtitled “Terrorism in the Middle East”: “The attack was carried out by Hezbollah, a Lebanese organization strongly opposed to the state of Israel and U.S. involvement in the Middle East.”

o The sentence omits the fact that Hezbollah is an Islamic terrorist organization.

Worldview Software Basic American History I

The Nation’s Money Supply is Strengthened. At Hamilton’s urging, Congress also created a national bank.

o Publisher provided no evidence to support the statement that the money supply is strengthened. He implies (without proof) that the creation of a National Bank is (a) constitutional, and (b) that without a National Bank (instead of State Banks), the money supply would not be strengthened. State Banks were not even mentioned as an alternative.

“On April 19, 1775, British troops marched to seize minutemen supplies at Concord, Massachusetts. Minutemen met the British at a small town called Lexington. Shots were fired.”

o No mention of “the shot heard around the world.” The “supplies” the British troops intended to seize were the stores of gunpowder…intended gun control

Chapter 6: Patriots Win Independence

o No reference to “Founding Fathers”, key players, their roles and influence, interaction; no mention of Valley Forge, of crossing the Delaware, of the hardships suffered by the Continental Army; of General Benedict Arnold, of General Lafayette – French General in the Continental Army or of General Von Steuben – Prussian General of the Continental Army.

“To make matters worse, pirates in the Mediterranean Sea attacked American ships.” Barbary pirates: pirates from North Africa. During the 1700s and early 1800s, these pirates demanded that ships in the Mediterranean Sea pay them a tribute (money). Harassment of American ships stopped after President Jefferson sent U.S. armed forces against the pirates in Tripoli in 1804.

o A key event in American history was the actions of the Barbary pirates which led to the Barbary Wars (1801-1815). The Barbary pirates were Muslims with two aims: enslave captives, usually Christian, and ransom the hostages for tribute. Publisher does not identify the pirates as Muslim.

federal system: a system of sharing power between the states and the national government.

o The phrase “national government” is factually incorrect. The U.S. Constitution created a “federal” government, not a “national” government. A “national” government is a ruling power. A “federal” government is an entity formed by independent nation-states which then grant the federal system with limited powers for specific purposes, all of which are for the purpose of serving the states. The publisher omits the fact that the states created the federal system with limited powers, thus allows the reader to assume that the term “sharing” is the result of a negotiation between equal parties. The publisher repeatedly uses the phrase “national government” instead of the correct phrase “federal government” to describe the relationship between the states and the three branches of the federal government. National governments RULE. Federal governments SERVE.

Sedition Act (1798): a law which made it a crime for people to “unfairly” criticize government officials.

o The textbook omits to say that the law was a violation of the 1st amendment because it prohibited congress from making a law prohibiting free speech.

The same is true today, as one might expect, as people (and interest groups) debate climate change, gay marriage, universal health care, and the reasons behind the growing income gap.

o The entire chapter is devoted to social movements, and mainly the anti-slavery movement. The student is shown the righteousness of the abolitionist movement from many aspects. Then, in the internet project section the student is led to equate controversial modern social movements to the anti-slavery movement.

B.C.E. (“Before the Common Era”) is replacing the previous designation of B.C. They both refer to the years before the birth of Jesus Christ. C.E. (“Common Era”) is replacing the designation of A.D. They both refer to years after the birth of Jesus Christ.

o The use of BC and AD was developed in AD 525 when the entrance of the Christ into the world was recognized as being the turning point of history, and our calendars were made to reflect that. The BC/AD system for identifying historical dates has been in continuous use ever since the earliest part of the Middle Ages, at least. The Julian Calendar (named after Julius Caesar) and the Gregorian Calendar (which was an improvement upon and superseded the Julian Calendar) in 1582, is still the most widely used calendar system in the world today. Critics view the new system as an attempt to remove the Christian significance inherent in the BC/AD system.

Worldview Software American History II: Post Civil War America to the Present

Carson’s book showed the unintended side effects of DDT, including its effect on birds and animals and its contamination of the human food supply.

o This only presents one side of banning DDT without considering the negative effects of a world-wide action. The most evident negative effect of banning DDT pesticide was the resultant deaths of thousands, perhaps millions of African people over the years from mosquito borne malaria, previously almost completely held in control by an insecticide with no reported ill effects upon humans. “The scientific literature does not contain even one peer-reviewed, independently replicated study linking DDT exposures to any adverse health outcome [in humans],” said Dr. Amir Attaran, a malaria expert formerly employed by the World Health Organization and currently affiliated with Harvard University’s Center for International Development. Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Harold M. Koenig said, “As far as I know, there is no known association between DDT or any other insecticide and cancer. To categorize [Rachel] Carson’s work as research is a big stretch. It was really just hysterical speculation.” One conclusion is inescapable: the environmental movement’s insistence on banning DDT from every part of the world in the latter decades of the 20th century led to a dramatic resurgence of malaria in many places where it previously had been eradicated. Moreover, the anti-DDT campaign prevented most of Africa, where the pesticide had never before been deployed on a scale grand enough to make a difference, from taking the measures necessary to save the multitudes of people who ultimately would die of malaria on that continent year after year. As recently as 2005, 500 million people around the world (approximately one-twelfth of the earth’s population) were contracting malaria on an annual basis; and each year, 2 to 3 million of them died as a result. Since the 1972 U.S. ban on DDT, more than 50 million people—about 90 percent of whom resided in sub-Saharan Africa, and most of whom were children younger than five—have died of malaria.

On the other hand, the U.S. forced Israel to withdraw from the area around the Suez Canal in 1956, putting an end to an Israeli invasion of Egypt meant to assure its access to that canal. Most importantly, over the course of many years, the U.S. has prodded Israel (sometimes quite energetically) to seek a comprehensive peace settlement in the Middle East, particularly with the Palestinian people.

o The language of invasion is very misleading and casts Israel in the role of aggressor, which is contrary to fact. Also, when it says the U.S. is prodding Israel to make peace with the Palestinians, it looks as though Israel is resisting peace and the Palestinians want it while the reverse is the case.

There was little doubt that the creation of Israel had simultaneously spawned what came to be known as the “Palestinian refugee problem.”

o There is no mention of the fact that the surrounding Arab nations’ refusal to take in the refugees contributed to the refugee problem.

…the U.S. commitment to Israel can be seen as reflecting the political influence of American Jews

o This is biased to the point of being anti-Semitic, suggesting something like the hidden Jewish control over govern found in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

The Holocaust alone resulted in the death of 6 million Jews and other groups deemed “racially inferior” by the Nazis, such as the Slavs and Gypsies.

o This statement suggests that the Holocaust included the murder of Pole, Gypsies, and others. The Holocaust is the Final Solution to the Jewish Question, not the Slav Question or Gypsy Question.

Worldview Software United States Government

By far the most compelling evidence of American weakness was the treatment that American ships received from the Barbary Pirates in the Mediterranean Sea. The four North African states of Morocco, Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers regularly captured the ships and crews of all nations not paying them annual tribute (bribes). They demanded tribute that the United States could not pay, and attacked ships that the United States could not defend; thus driving American shipping from the Mediterranean.

o Doesn’t give much about how the captured Americans were treated (as slaves or killed) or what our ambassadors were told when they tried to negotiate with the Muslims. It also doesn’t identify these pirates as Muslims. The Barbary threat led directly to the creation of the United States Navy in March 1794. While the United States managed to secure peace treaties, these obliged it to pay tribute for protection from attack. Payments in ransom and tribute to the Barbary states amounted to 20% of United States government annual expenditures in 1800.

A demagogue, Senator Joseph McCarthy, tried to increase his power by falsely accusing people of being communists.

o Editorial opinion stated as fact. As a result of the material that has emerged from Russian archives and the release of the deciphered Venona cables, we now know the American Communist Party successfully infiltrated government agencies throughout the 1930’s and 1940’s. They vindicate much of McCarthy’s charges and prove that 349 Americans had covert ties to Soviet intelligence. There is no longer any question about the fact that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were Soviet spies. There is no doubt that Alger Hiss was a Soviet spy and continued to provide information through the Yalta Conference which he attended as an advisor to FDR. The Soviets thoroughly infiltrated the Manhattan Project and were able to build an atomic bomb several years before they otherwise would have because of such spies as Klaus Fuchs, a German-born British scientist, convicted of espionage in the late 1940s and Theodore Hall, a young American physicist who died in Britain in 1999, who had never been publicly named as a spy until the Venona material was released.

More than 200 U.S. peace-keeping Marines were killed by a terrorist bomb blast in Lebanon.

o More than 200 U.S. peace-keeping Marines were killed by a terrorist bomb blast in Lebanon originating from the Islamic terrorist group Hezbollah. A splinter group of the Iranian-and Syrian-supported Hezbollah organization carried out the attack, which allegedly was planned by a man who later inspired Osama bin Laden.

Congress refused to enact Clinton’s proposal for universal health insurance, a plan which would have extended health insurance to all Americans. Hopes for major health-care reform were crushed.

o The American people were overwhelmingly opposed to this proposal. The 1994 mid-term election became, in the opinion of one media observer, a “referendum on big government – Hillary Clinton had launched a massive health-care reform plan that wound up strangled by its own red tape.”

Al Jazeera, the Arabic-language satellite television channel, broadcast a videotape of Osama bin Laden, leader of the al Qaeda terrorist organization. In the tape, bin Laden indicated that he had instigated the plans for the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States. He said that the attacks were in retaliation for the U.S. support of Israel and Israel’s actions, citing specifically the Israeli bombing of Lebanon in 1982. He stated that the “motivations are still there for what happened to be repeated,” indicating that al Qaeda would continue to target the United States unless its policies changed. A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analysis of the tape concluded that it was aimed at boosting U.S. President George W. Bush’s re-election chances. Broadcast just days before the U.S. elections, the tape seemed to boost Bush’s popularity ratings. In a previously tight race, Bush had a six-point lead over his opponent in the first poll after the tape issuance.

o Why would Osama bin Ladin or Al Jazeera want to boost any American president’s chances at being elected, especially one that was so forceful in initiating action against the Islamic terrorists? The CIA analysis is conjecture and opinion and should have no place in this textbook.

In May, 31-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen Faisal Shahzad drove a 1993 Nissan Pathfinder 4×4 loaded with gasoline, propane, fireworks, and fertilizer into the heart of Times Square in New York City, which was packed with people. The attempt to detonate the mixture failed when a street vendor alerted police after seeing smoke coming from the vehicle. Shahzad was arrested as he tried to take a flight to Dubai, was found guilty in a June trial, and sentenced to life in prison in October.

o No mention that the man was a Muslim and this was Islamic Jihad (Islamic holy war) for him.

Trayvon Martin – Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, 17, was shot and killed in February by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer. Martin was unarmed, and had been walking back to his father’s fiancee’s house in a gated community from a convenience store when Zimmerman pursued and confronted him. An altercation ensued and Martin was shot. Zimmerman was at first not arrested, but as facts became available in the media, the public outcry forced outside agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, to investigate. Zimmerman was later charged with second-degree murder.

o Zimmerman was later charged with second-degree murder but was found not guilty by the jury. This incident is not noteworthy except that President Obama and Al Sharpton both contributed to the charge that the incident was racial.

Martin was unarmed when he was accosted and shot by Zimmerman.

o Evidence indicates that Martin had thrown Zimmerman to the pavement and was beating Zimmerman’s head against the pavement when he was shot by Zimmerman.

In May, Delaware and Minnesota passed laws legalizing gay marriage, paving the way for them to become the 11th and 12th U.S. states to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples. Nationally, polling data shows that almost 60% of Americans support gay marriage. In addition, many businesses and corporations have changed their internal benefits policies to support same-sex couples.

o Over 54 million Americans in 34 states have voted “yes” to marriage being defined as between one man and one woman. Forty-one states have affirmed marriage by that definition through constitutional amendments and laws.

Account of what caused the global financial crisis focusing on subprime mortgages.

o Lots of discussion about banks making profits and issuing loans to people that could not pay them back plus the rebundling of loans and selling them to other buyers. There is nothing stated relative to government’s complicity in the financial debacle via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSO’s) in forcing institutions to make these bad loans. In October 1992, Congress adopted Title XIII of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992, which, among other things, required Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to direct a substantial portion of their mortgage financing to borrowers who were at or below the median income in their communities.

Up until 1920, women were also denied such basic rights as voting in federal elections. The women’s rights movement has also generated important court cases. The landmark case concerning the right to control what happens to one’s own body is “Roe v. Wade” (1973), which declared unconstitutional state laws prohibiting abortions during the first six months of a woman’s pregnancy. The Supreme Court, in some earlier cases, had ruled that Americans enjoy a right to privacy, though this right is implied rather than explicitly stated in the Bill of Rights. “Roe v. Wade” extended this principle of a right to privacy so that a woman had the right to choose an abortion.

o This is a highly emotional issue that has divided the American people. The comment fails to mention that the unlimited right to an abortion is opposed by a large number of Americans. A recent Gallop poll shows 46% Pro Life and 47% Pro Choice. Most recently, several states have enacted laws that ban abortion at 20 weeks’ based on the assertion that a fetus can feel pain at that point: 42 states prohibit some abortions after a certain point in pregnancy; .21 states impose prohibitions at fetal viability; 3 states impose prohibitions in the third trimester; 18 states impose prohibitions after a certain number of weeks; 9 of these states ban abortion at 20 weeks.

More extreme protesters used the controversy to spread hate about Muslims in America, conflating Islam with terrorism, claiming that it was customary for Muslims to build on conquered territory as a way of defeating their enemy psychologically — that this mosque would be the thin edge of a wedge to impose Sharia law in the United States.

o According to Gabriel Scheinmann writing for the Gatestone Institute International Policy Council, the real issue behind the Ground Zero mosque controversy is primarily about understanding how Muslims across the world, in particular Islamists, would view the conversion of the site of the greatest Muslim attack on U.S. soil into a Muslim house of worship. He states, given the long history of mosque-building following Muslim military victories, the building of the Cordoba House on Ground Zero will be seen in the same light as the Muslim conquests of Mecca, Jerusalem, and Constantinople. Scheinmann adds, in its long history of conquest, Islam has habitually converted the sacred shrines of its enemies into mosques and madrasas and a cursory look at the world’s most famous mosques lays bare the fact that many were former houses of worships of defeated enemies.

Native Americans find the use of their images and nicknames for sports symbols (for example, the Cleveland Indians or the Atlanta Braves) offensive and racially motivated. Many colleges and local schools also use Native American nicknames and images for their teams. Native Americans feel that they perpetuate racial stereotypes. (Suggested starting point for research: the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and Media site, www.aimovement.org/ncrsm)

o The connotation of Brave in Atlanta Braves is positive. This recent PC effort to strike these names is ludicrous and without merit.

The opposing philosophy of judicial restraint is that of judicial activism, which argues that judges should use their power broadly to further justice, especially in the areas of equality and personal liberty, even if this means overruling the wishes of elected officials and the public.

o Judicial activism is discussed here as an acceptable court philosophy. It should not be acceptable as it has the potential of rewriting the Constitution and any issue of that nature should be pushed back to Congress and the people. The 10th Amendment to the Constitution states that all powers not enumerated are reserved to the states respectively or to the people. Many people believe that judges should not legislate from the bench.

Perfection Learning Economics for Everybody

The quantity of money in circulation affects prices, the value of money, and business cycle. When the money supply increases, while everything else remains the same, people have more money to spend and prices rise. When people have less money to spend, the opposite occurs. Prices fall and the value of money increases. Through the Federal Reserve System, the federal government controls the money supply. Thus, control over the money supply represents still another way in which the government affects the business cycle.

o The Federal Reserve System is not under direct government control. Members of the governing board are appointed by the President and must be confirmed by the Senate. The banks in the Federal Reserve System are privately owned. National chartered banks are required to be members of the system. Federal Reserve Act of 1913 with amendments. Federal government control is indirect, at best.

The carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere absorbs and holds the sun’s heat and raises the earth’s temperature. Scientists call this trapping of solar heat the greenhouse effect. Average global temperatures, it is feared, may increase by as much as 4 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2090. Temperatures will rise still faster in the polar regions, causing the polar ice caps to melt. This will lead to rising sea levels, which can endanger the world’s coastal regions and small, low-lying islands.

o This is a Factual Error. According to the Heartland Institute, “The melting of glaciers is often cited as evidence mankind is causing global warming through carbon dioxide emissions. A corollary of this is that melting glaciers raise sea levels, which will reach catastrophic levels unless CO2 emissions are reduced. Adding to the massive evidence already refuting these assertions, a recent paper provides more accurate reconstruction of two centuries of previous data “by using many more stations, particularly in the polar regions, and recently processed historic data series from isolated island stations.” The new study is based on monthly mean sea level data from 1807 to 2010. Regarding this new study, well-known meteorologist Anthony Watts wrote “this newest analysis of the most comprehensive data set available suggests that there has been no dramatic increase—or any increase, for that matter—in the atmosphere’s CO2 concentration. [Therefore, there is no evidence of any human influence on sea levels.]” The last sentence, in brackets, is Mr. Watt’s.” According to National Geographic, “Despite frequent headlines about a warming planet, melting sea ice, and rising oceans, climate analysts pointed to a seeming bright spot this week: During Southern Hemisphere winters, sea ice in the Antarctic, the floating chunks of frozen ocean water, is actually increasing.”

o

At present, the United States relies on imports for more than half the oil that it consumes, and the reliance on foreign oil is growing.

o This is a Factual Error. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, with the increased use of hydraulic fracturing in newer fields in North Dakota and Texas, our reliance on foreign oil is diminishing. According to the Wall Street Journal, “America will halve its reliance on Middle East oil by the end of this decade and could end it completely by 2035 due to declining demand and the rapid growth of new petroleum sources in the Western Hemisphere, energy analysts now anticipate. By 2020, nearly half of the crude oil America consumes will be produced at home, while 82% will come from this side of the Atlantic, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. By 2035, oil shipments from the Middle East to North America “could almost be nonexistent,” the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries recently predicted, partly because more efficient car engines and a growing supply of renewable fuel will help curb demand.”